Old School, But Never Cool.

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I have always enjoyed the idea of astrology – that the stars align in various ways to make various things happen (whether those ‘things’ are personality traits or specific events) but I don’t attach a lot of weight to the idea. There is just no reasonable, rational way to use astrology. It’s fun, but.. yeah. If you read the profile of a typical Cancer it certainly describes me, but.. y’know. You can read anything and make it fit, somehow, if the wording is vague enough.

At any rate, a friend posted these horoscopes on FB this morning and I clicked through to see what my sign had to say – and.. well, it’s pretty accurate about the things I need to change and/or do differently. Maybe it just feels that way because I’m looking for inspiration or trying to shift how I work and exist?

Whatever.

Here’s my horoscope:

CANCER

Your Contribution to the Movement: Redefinition. Challenge in this Era: Let’s be clear, Cancer, you feed the movement. Maybe this means making food for your families, friends, community, or projects. But really it means that the way you show up, care for your loved ones, make houses into homes, and strive to offer guidance, compassion, and empathy to many, indeed does feed the movement emotionally and spiritually. The love and work that Cancer offers is essential, and everyone needs it from someone, however it often goes without thanks and is taken for granted. Your challenge for this era is to redefine motherhood, parenthood, caregiving, and home and family life at large. You do this by transforming those definitions in your own life, in ways that are unique and personal to you. These identities no longer mean self-sacrifice, or putting everyone’s needs ahead of your own while you tumble into never-ending cycles of burnout. When you uplift your own needs and boundaries, this teaches the entire collective something significant about themselves. Your tough love, Mama Bear way of nurturing inspires anyone who witnesses you. While you undergo this transformation you are shedding many of your own old ideas and attachments to what home, family, and identity used to feel like, and you may have to let go of some loved ones in the process too. Cancer medicine says, it’s okay to feel those losses and gains as deeply as you need to. Your emotions won’t kill you. Your emotions are your strength.

Your Contribution to the Movement:Organizing with Principles of Friendship, not Duty. Challenge in this Era: Aquarius, you are the master organizer when it comes to bringing together people, ideas, projects, and forward momentum. You’re also super tuned in to that future frequency, which means you’re thinking about sustainability too. You know in your heart that our movements should not be just another task we put on an already over-loaded list, or shoved into an already booked schedule, or just another obligation that causes burnout. Instead, you’re asking the movement to uplift qualities of a good fucking friendship. Good friendships accept and respect each of us as we are, as our own unique, individual, weirdo genius. Friendships are places we can recharge, have fun, gain energy, comfort, safety, and inspiration. In good friendships, there is no control or manipulation, no talking down to or over one another. There is genuine respect for each other’s autonomy, but also a deep desire to connect, and to share resources, knowledge, time, care, and company. A good friend will give you space to grow and change when you need to. All these qualities are essential in our movements as well, especially as we need to be open to adapting to a quickly changing social and global climate on a collective scale. Your challenge in this era will be confronting whatever dynamics get in the way of friendship: unchecked power dynamics, power-tripping, tyranny, dictatorship. It will feel daunting, but when you get overwhelmed, just remember you’re not in this alone. Gather your people. That’s the whole point.

And the inner me:

SCORPIO

Your Contribution to the Movement: You Break the Cycle. Challenge in this Era: Dear Scorpio, since birth you have carried memories of the most painful side of humanity. You have carried secrets from your ancestors that they had nobody to tell but your body. Most Scorpios grow up with some kind of close and intimate knowledge of death, suicide, mental health crises, abuse, or addiction. You’ve likely dealt with supporting family members or loved ones through these struggles, or you yourself have experienced them and lived to tell the tale. Why? Because you came here to break the cycle. Your challenge is to not let yourself be defined by the violence you’ve faced or witnessed. Rather, remind yourself that you have created miracles just by being alive. Scorpio is the sign that rules intergenerational trauma. These are cycles of poverty, sexual or psychological abuse, secrets, despair, and pain that are passed down through generations. So many tried their best, but did not know how to break out of the circumstances they were given. That’s why we have Scorpio. More than any other, you know about death and rebirth. You know what it is to take the violence that you’ve been given and turn it into an empowering story. In our movements, we fear the phoenix, we fear the one who feels as deeply as the ocean, but we need Scorpio more than ever. We need to be brave enough to be present with the generational wounds of slavery, genocide, mass displacement, incarceration, and the ugliest sides of humanity we’ve seen. We need the courage to sit with the emotional and psychological impacts these systems have had on our hearts and minds—whether we have been harmed or done the harm, or both. We mustn’t run away from the ways that these violent systems have been internalized within us—that is the only way we can let them die. Scorpio, your medicine is the death ritual. We follow your lead. We are your witness, as you bury the pain you’ve endured in the Earth’s soil, as you grow new life from the dirt. We praise you.

Over the weekend, Coffee and I went to tour a house that’s for sale down the road from us. The listing price is about $120,000 more than we paid for our home (6 years ago) and, from the photos online, it didn’t look particularly fancy.

We are not planning to sell our home, or move, and we don’t know anyone who’s in the market for a home – we just like to snoop through. If you put up an “open house” sign in our ‘hood, there’s a decent chance we’re going to show up.

I like to look at people’s living spaces. I have to be reminded that people’s houses are (usually) somewhat staged – all the clutter has been boxed up and put away into storage, windows have been cleaned, furniture has been carefully arranged, etc. But I like to see how people fill their rooms, where they hang a mirror, how they decorate their rec room, and how they organize their garage.

I especially like it if the house in question has even the tiniest resemblance to my own home – like, holy shit, THAT’S what we could put in that weird little alcove! That’s what our bathroom would look like if we moved things around a bit!

In this case.. well.

The layout was similar but the house is much smaller – so the rooms had a weird Alice in Wonderland feel to them. The stairway was narrower. The bedrooms each had one window, not two. The kitchen was teensy.

Walking through the place, I would put money on it being a single father living there, post-divorce, with at least 2 teenagers. Coffee thinks maybe they have to sell as a result of that divorce. I got the vibe that no adult women had lived in that house for a few years – and one was definitely not living there at the time that they put the place on the market. I will admit that I am basing this on stereotypes.

When I was a kid, my parents smoked. My grandparents smoked. Everyone smoked, everywhere, all the time. In the car. In the house. In restaurants. I spent a lot of my formative years choking on tobacco smoke and gasping for air while someone, cigarette clenched between tight lips, tried to find my inhalers. At my grandparents’ house, I would often be told to “go stand outside for a little while”, even in the cold, if my barking cough started up.

Look, I understand addiction on some levels, y’know?

Eventually my mother quit smoking and my Dad was relegated to smoking in the garage or his workshop (or his truck). The air in my childhood home cleared up. (I basically held my breath at my grandparents’ house.) After moving out on my own, I lived with people who smoked – but who either did it in their own rooms or outdoors (with the exception of weed which wafted everywhere, all the time).

From 1996 onward, though, I lived in spaces that were almost completely smoke-free. And my lungs got really, really spoiled by that. No more inhalers! It was hard to visit my Dad, who was back to smoking inside (because he was single) and my grandparents who still smoked like it was the only thing keeping them alive.

Since 2001, though, most of my time is spent in non-smoking environments. And that’s all well and good, truly, but holy shit am I ever sensitive and aware of smoke now. I visit clients’ homes and I want to die. I start to feel like I’m dying of suffocation. I have a few friends who chain smoke indoors – and that’s okay! it’s their home! I’m a guest! but.. holy fuck. The smell is like an oil slick – it coats everything. I can smell it on my skin, hair, clothes.. it’s awful. I can’t wait to come home and shower and put all my clothing into the washing machine.

(I don’t know how I survived bars in Toronto in the 90s. Was it because I was drunk?)

So, as we’re walking around this house that’s for sale, I am only slightly distracted by the weird room sizes – but I am vividly aware that while the lighting is quite yellowy, the walls and floors are also quite yellowy. Everything smells like rancid smoke. And I start thinking about how, when my grandparents died, my Dad had to hire a professional painter to deal with the interior of their home (which he wanted to sell) because the walls were so heavily coated in sticky, yellow, rancid stank. He tried to apply special primer and watched as the yellow nicotine just oozed right through it. 60+ years of multiple people chain smoking will do that.

We came home after the open house, I changed my clothes and washed myself off and pondered just how different my adult life is, in some ways, from my childhood.

If there’s one thing that I like best about the whole legal weed thing, it’s that I can actually choose the strain that I want – and am not simply getting whatever someone has on hand. This is lesson number one, for most people: there are different types of weed and they don’t have the same effects.

There are three types that people consume: sativa, indica, and hybrids. The latter, of course, is a mix of the first two.

Before I knew about the different types, I was often confused by other people discussing their ‘highs’. For me, weed had almost exclusively given me the stereotypical ‘lazy’ feeling with a heavy side dose of the munchies. Meanwhile, I had friends telling me how they liked to smoke a bit of weed and then clean their house from top to bottom. Like… what?! How on earth could anyone find that enjoyable when the sofa cushions were so soft and squishy?

The answer is in the type of weed consumed.

Sativas are, generally, a more ‘up’ high. Cheerful. Not necessarily a stimulant, but a much more focused or “cerebral” high. Some people would call them a daytime high – it’s usually not accompanied by the urge to curl up on the sofa with a bowl of cheesies.

Indicas are, generally, the evening/night high. A relaxing high in terms of both brain and body. Often used for chronic pain, insomnia, and anxiety.

Interestingly, the plants don’t just have different effects – they also behave differently as they’re growing. Sativas are tall. Indicas are short and shrubby. Sativas take longer to bloom. Indicas are better grown indoors instead of outside.

Hybrids are a.. well, hybrids. A combination. The aim, of course, being to give someone the best of both worlds. They might be 60% sativa and 40% indica, or the reverse, or literally any other ratio.

Beyond the type of weed, there’s the actual strain – like any other plant, there are plenty from which to choose (like Tangerine Dream, Pink Kush, White Widow, etc..etc..etc..) Each will have a naturally different flavour and scent (thanks to terpenes – scroll down this page for a little chart with some basic flavour/scents. Each will have a slightly different effect. Each will have different levels of THC and CBD. Much like buying any other product, it’s nice to find one that you like and re-order as-needed. Consistency is a good thing!

Let’s talk about THC and CBD.

Your body naturally makes something called cannabinoids and it has receptors for them. Cannabinoids are chemicals – and, in addition to those made by your body, cannabinoids are found in weed. Most of the receptors are in your brain – so when the cannabinoids attach, you experience changes in your mood, perception of time, senses, coordination, etc.

The two cannabinoids most discussed, at least when it comes to weed, are CBD and THC.

CBD has been a big deal for a lot of people over the past few years – with people buying it in lotions, feeding it to their dogs, and otherwise finding creative uses for it. CBD is cannabidiol – it’s part of the weed that doesn’t get you high at all, but has the potential to relieve pain, help you sleep, decrease anxiety, etc. The research is still pretty new, but a lot of people swear by it. For some people, it’s the redeeming part of the devil’s lettuce.

THC is the part that gets you high. THC is tetrahydrocannabinol. It attaches to the brain receptors and makes you feel relaxed, a bit happy (or downright euphoric), etc. The more THC, the higher the high. Under 2.5% THC and you likely won’t feel anything. 15% THC is sort of the middle ground. Over 25% is considered strong.

Think of it like alcohol – the higher the percentage, the stronger it is. You can use a smaller quantity (generally) to get your desired effect.

Every strain of weed will have a specific amount of CBD and THC in it – low or high, depending. Some people specifically choose weed that’s low in THC but higher in CBD – they don’t want to feel ‘high’, but they want the pain relief, perhaps. Other people prefer something with more THC so they can experience the ‘high’.

Summary:

So, you’re thinking you want to try some (presumably) legal weed. You need to decide on a combination of the following:

Are you looking for something a bit energizing or relaxing or middle ground? (Sativa, Indica, or hybrid)

Do you want to feel high or just have some potential benefits from CBD, or somewhere in the middle? (% THC and/or % CBD)

What flavours are you interested in? (Strain)

And then you’ll need to decide how you want to consume it – which I’ll talk about in (probably) tomorrow’s instalment.

Also – please add corrections, more info, or ask questions… I tried to be accurate, thorough, but not overwhelming… but I was a little bit baked while writing this. (Ha!)

There is a possibility that Coffee will have to travel for work at some point in the future and my mind has immediately gone to the worst-case-scenarios. I like to imagine myself as being a smart, strong, sensual woman – and to varying degrees I am – but the life I have constructed with Coffee is intended to minimize my weaknesses.

I have been half-joking about all the things that will go wrong – like a toilet will get clogged and, since I have no idea how to use a plunger, the youngest kid will need to shit into grocery bags until Coffee gets back later in the week.

Or what if something goes wrong with our electrical system? We’ll be living in the dark until Coffee returns because I’m afraid of the breaker panel in the basement and there is no way I’m getting near it.

WHAT IF THE INTERNET GOES OUT?!

And let’s not forget the actual simple practicalities of managing a life – walking the dog, feeding the cats, buying groceries, paying bills, doing laundry, shovelling snow (or mowing the lawn, depending on the season) and, oh, wait, I still have to go to work 5 days per week. Holy shit, I am not qualified.

Look – I’m really good at some things. But I have a lot of.. quirks. I’m fussy. I am not remotely self-reliant on, like, 30 different levels. My mental well-being depends on all the lovely structure that’s been crafted around me like those wooden stakes and ropes around a sapling.

Coffee has humoured me in these discussions, while reminding me that I can call a plumber or an electrician, I can google instructions for things, the kid can walk the dog, and that I can order groceries online so I don’t have to worry about endlessly wandering the store without supervision. (Too bad – I’ve already insisted that the kid and I will eat sandwiches and multivitamins.)

But he also reminded me that the more likely outcome is that I’ll be just fine and that I will have a hard time adjusting to him being home again after he’s been away for a bit. And I admit, I will likely need to adjust – because I get very, very lost in my head sometimes.

Maybe it’s an only child thing – spending a lot of time alone, lost in thought, with a very controllable (by me) environment, is something with which I am very comfortable. I know that I lean towards the hyperfocus aspect of ADD and it’s hard for me to drag myself out. I describe it as being “in the flow” and when I need to shift away, it feels like I’m trying to swim against a really strong current. It makes me irritable. It takes me some time to drag my attention outward again. Everything seems harsh and unpleasant, suddenly.

I will need to make an effort to see other humans, away from work, too – which.. well, I really enjoy being a hermit, so that’s going to be rough.

The good, I suppose, is that Coffee will be doing work-related stuff that he’ll enjoy. And I’ll be able to go to bed at 7pm and sprawl like a starfish across the king-sized bed.

Maybe I’ll discover that I am surprisingly self-sufficient, or maybe he’ll return to find out that I was fired and we now live in our cars. It’ll be an adventure.

For lack of anything else to write about, here’s a review of some weed.

Actually, first, here’s a bit of rambling on the topic. Despite the legalization across Canada, quite a few people are still whispering about it. I know plenty of people ordered from a legal source when it became available – some out of curiosity because they’ve never tried it, some necessity because the dispensaries and legal producers are running short, and some because it’s been 40 years since they’ve tried any weed and they’re wondering if they’ll still enjoy it.

But very few people are talking about it the same way the would about alcohol. I assume some people just aren’t comfortable with it yet – the language, the lingo, the details. I assume others are still worried they’ll be judged.

The legal website for purchase here doesn’t allow reviews – and, to be honest, their product info is pretty short on details. Hopefully that improves but, in the meantime, there are plenty of sites that provide plenty of details about various strains.

We’ll call this review – and any that come in the future – my own personal ranking system in the event that I need help figuring out what/if to re-order.

I got a pretty hefty order of legal weed recently – two orders, actually, that arrived on the same day (because I got impatient waiting for the first one to arrive). Today I finally had the chance to try one of the strains and.. it’s been quite the day.

Today’s sample was Tangerine Dream (sativa dominant), to be specific.

The only way I can describe the results of this particular weed is to say that it was like it was feeding my ADD. It’s been a really, really long time since I’ve felt like that. I’ve spent many years working to control my brain’s urge to meander… and this just totally wiped out all my ability/control. Hoooooboy.

I was cheerful enough and the high was very cerebral, both of which were nice side effects. I had super relaxed muscles – which was nice for my shoulder/neck situation. I was a little snack-y but not uncontrollably – it wasn’t a case where food was magically delightful.

(This weed, actually, tasted delightful from the start – a lot like orange peels. Which, to me, is a good thing. A really nice, bright citrus taste that lingered.)

But.. I could not focus on anything for more than a minute or two. I kept starting something, getting distracted, and then starting something else. I kept forgetting what I was doing while I was doing it. The day felt like it was 400 hours – not in a bad way, just that time was going by ridiculously slowly. I kept looking at the clock and wondering how the hell it could possibly still not be nighttime.

None of it bothered me. I was kind of.. in the moment.

Definitely not the weed to use when I’ve got something – anything – that needs to get done. That said, it was a really nice rest for my brain in a way that didn’t involve sleeping.

I’m curious how well I’ll sleep tonight – my usual evening consumption has been very helpful (both in terms of getting me to fall asleep but also, I think, staying asleep) and it would be lovely if other strains did that, too.